In the end,
we will conserve only what we love,
we will love only what we understand,
we will understand only what we are taught.
Baba Dioum, Senegalese Conservationis
“Today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders. However, it is this generation who must act now to ensure that the problems our children face as adults are not insurmountable.”
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Welcome To GSA
The GSA started because ONE little boy wanted to celebrate Earth Day in his first grade class at Allen-Stevenson, and because ONE mother wanted to make EVERYday Earth Day for him.
It started because ONE extraordinary astronaut, who hung upside down under the Earth on one toe fixing the Hubble said, “There are infinite complex life forms in this infinite universe, some survive and some don’t. I’m afraid we may not make it—what are YOU willing to give up?”
The GSA started with ONE school facility manager who thought that energy was the right way to challenge HIS community, and ONE Business manager who understood the financial implications on institutions and the need to support a collaborative effort. It started with ONE Headmaster who had the vision, understanding and determination to change his corner of the world.
The GSA started with ONE Music Director at The Town School who began a Green group, and ONE Science Director at Browning who joined him. It started with ONE Trustee at Calhoun who thought a green roof was a great idea, ONE person at Fieldston who caught the bug, and ONE headmaster at St Hilda’s and St Hugh’s who signed on for renewable energy hoping it could make a difference.
It started with ONE child and ONE teacher at Hewitt who began a community recycling drive and contacted PerScholas, an organization in the S. Bronx that collects and restores old computers and distributes them to those in need, and it started with ONE second grader at Chapin who conspired with her best friend to make a recycling video.
The GSA started as an idea, a dream, then a possibility, and now because of every single ONE who has come with their story, their curiosity, interest or experience, who want to make a difference one small step at a time — it has become a reality. Well, we’re not taking small steps any longer. Coming together as one, to create a green school community, is ONE BIG LEAP! E Pluribus Unum: from the many ONE. WE are the Green Schools Alliance!
We understand that the education community can play a unique and key role in adverting disaster and we recognize the collective strength of individual action. We have an opportunity at this unique moment, to join our individual concern into collective action to maximize our shared benefit.
The 40+ independent schools that came together for the New York pilot, the 30+ schools who took part in the Green Cup Challenge, and the collective actions of individual schools across this country, reflect an unprecedented demonstration of our community’s desire to address the climate change challenge head-on.
Launched on World Environment Day June 5, 2007, the GSA recognizes and will support the leadership role that schools, as a critical mass, can play in solving our environmental and climate challenges.
Inspired by Mayor Bloomberg’s challenge to reduce carbon by 30% in 10 years, the GSA Climate Commitment Pledge and Four-Point Program addresse sustainability, Climate Change, what Schools can do to help, and identifies some of the resources, tools and incentive programs available to support us.
Greening our schools is a commitment, but it’s not a competition. It’s not about winners, or losers, or who gets there first, or does it best, or most. It’s about celebrating our successes, sharing our experiences and collaborating to build a community and learn together how to do it better. If there are winners and losers then we’re all losers, and we can’t afford to loose. Our survival depends on it. We are a TEAM—OUR TEAM.
With the guidance of many individuals and organizations including the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, NAIS, NYSAIS, the USGBC, and NRDC, the GSA has developed the pilot K-12 Green Schools Climate Commitment.
This Pledge will be launched to schools nationwide at the NAIS Annual Conference in NYC at Radio City Music Hall in February. It’s a Call-To-Action to America’s schools to recognize the need to become carbon neutral in 10 years, and to begin by reducing our carbon footprint by at least 30% in the next 5 years.
It’s a goal that can be achieved thanks to the support of the many no-cost/low-cost energy and carbon reduction programs and related incentive programs immediately available to all our schools.
With the support of local, state, and national resource partners, the goal of the Pledge is not only possible and practical, but critical. We hope that you will contribute to this effort and become a member of the GSA by taking the Pledge.
The GSA is about joining our individual concern into collective action to protect our shared future.
GSA is an alliance of K to12 public, private and independent schools
uniting to take action on climate change and the environment.
The Green Schools Alliance (GSA) is a program of GEO: Global Environmental Options, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that was founded in 1994 as a result of the Greening of the White House Initiative, the first major gathering of the green building community around one project. GSA is working in a similar fashion to coordinate our nation’s over 120,000 Pre-K to grade 12 public, private and independent schools to address climate change and the environment.
The GSA was inspired by Mayor Bloomberg’s challenge to NYC institutions to reduce their carbon footprint 30% by 2030. First proposed on World Environment Day, June 5, 2007, the GSA pilot was launched through the Allen-Stevenson School in NYC on October 11, 2007 with support from the Mayor's Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability, the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) and other national, state and local partners.
GSA's Mission
The mission of the GSA is to galvanize pre-K to grade 12 schools’ individual concerns about climate change and the environment into collective action to protect our shared future.
Schools Guiding Schools
The GSA is comprised of students, parents, school heads and administrators, business officials, facility managers, trustees and school boards, teachers, and staff working together to ensure a safe and healthy environment for future generations through the implementation of sustainable, energy-smart solutions today.
GSA is achieving its mission by engaging early-adopter schools to launch a grassroots network of schools guiding schools. This infrastructure simultaneously supports schools to meet their individual climate and sustainability goals, while maximizing the environmental benefits to the greatest number.
GSA is unique because it evolved “from the schools, by the schools, for the schools.” Through the GSA, schools are leveraging their collective experience, expertise and will, to create a measurable difference through the integration of education and action.
As a school-based organization without a pre-existing agenda, GSA provides a diverse menu of opportunities and has captured the imagination and confidence of our member schools. Together GSA member schools can add their voice to the national dialogue on climate change and the environment, and their impact on the carbon bottom line.
The Problem: The Global Climate Crisis
Uncontrolled carbon emissions are leading to unmanageable climate change that result in significant impacts on weather patterns, food supplies, species survival, sea level rise, spread of disease, etc. The 2007 report from the U.N. Foundation and Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Society, entitled Confronting Climate Change: Avoiding the Unmanageable and Managing the Unavoidable, concludes that we need to stop growth in (as well as begin to reduce) greenhouse gas emissions by between 2015 and 2020 in order to forestall unmanageable climate change. Scientists worldwide agree that our climate and environmental challenges are real and imminent.
FACT: Experts estimate that over half of the energy used in buildings is wasted and can be cost-effectively eliminated using currently available technology and other strategies.
FACT: According to the U.S. EPA 2006 Emissions Inventory, the CO2 emitted from burning fossil fuels (coal, oil & natural gas) represents over 90% of net U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
FACT: The U.S. DOE calculates that buildings consume over 40% of total energy—including 70% of America’s electricity—and account for 38% of carbon emissions in the US.
FACT: Our nation's K-12 schools are challenged to serve growing student populations and rising community expectations with aging buildings, constrained operating budgets, and ever-increasing energy bills. Consequently, these buildings expose students, faculty and staff to high levels of pollutants, put their health and productivity at risk, and simultaneously waste a significant amount of energy which contribute to climate change and environmental degradation.
The Opportunity: Sustainable, Energy-Smart Schools
There are more than 120,000 public, private and independent pre-K to grade 12 schools in the United States alone that directly touch the lives of more than 80 million people. When friends, relatives and their local communities are factored into the equation, the number is enormous. The aggregate impact of school communities is sufficient to play a measurable role in helping to stop global warming and build a safe, sustainable future. Through the GSA, pre-K to grade 12 schools can have a voice in the national dialogue on climate and the environment. If inspired to think globally and act locally, students and their broader school communities, can be empowered to become stewards for the environment who can impact climate change and our future on this planet.
FACT: According to the U.S. DOE, each year, taxpayers unnecessarily spend $6 billion on energy alone for schools — about 25 percent more than needed. That $1.5 billion could be redirected to hire 30,000 new teachers or purchase 40 million new textbooks annually.
FACT: Teachers could incorporate their school's green features, such as energy, into their curriculum, providing students with hands-on learning opportunities about the environment, educate their school communities about the important role each person can play to build a safe, sustainable future.
The GSA recognizes the leadership role that students and schools can play to solve our complex environmental challenges. GSA Programs work with schools to set goals and create measurable results, and to leverage schools’ critical mass to maximize the environmental benefits to the greatest number. In an effort to protect our shared future from unmanageable climate change and environmental degradation, GSA programs:
BUILD a critical mass that unites schools’ individual concerns about climate change and the environment into collective action to address our shared future.
EDUCATE the broadest range of stakeholders about the environmental issues facing our world and the benefits of making sustainable choices.
EMPOWER our school communities to become part of the environmental solution.
INSPIRE environmental stewardship, personal responsibility, leadership & cooperation.
MEASURE, REDUCE & REPORT schools individual energy consumption and carbon footprint in order to support the goal of Carbon Neutrality.
GSA programs are designed to inspire environmental stewardship and mitigate climate change through sustainable solutions and the integration of education and action. GSA creates grassroots and institutional incentives to form an implementation framework that leads to quantifiable energy and carbon reduction. GSA programs are designed through a peer review process, in collaboration with utilities, public/private partnerships, and other agencies and organizations, to build a grassroots critical mass whose momentum and collective impact can optimize success and expedite change. Because all schools are different and have unique needs, GSA programs reflect a diverse menu of resources and programs. All schools--public, private and independent--are invited to participate in GSA programs.
The Green Schools Climate Commitment
The nation’s only K to grade 12 Climate Pledge is a roadmap and incentive to schools to measure and reduce their energy and carbon footprint. Designed to engage the largest number of schools through two entry levels--Climate Stewards and Climate Champions--it simultaneously sets goals and creates meaningful results. The GSA Technical Review Group is developing a standardized national benchmark and an implementation protocol to meet the diverse needs of Signatory Schools.
The Green Cup Challenge
The Cup Challenge (GCC) is a student-driven interschool energy challenge. Asking schools to measure and reduce campus electricity and greenhouse gas emissions, the challenge builds awareness about climate change and encourages the participation of the entire campus community. GSA is working with the National Conservation Training Center (NCTC) of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency to host a Student Climate and Conservation Congress that plans to draw student leaders from GCC schools and other national and international student organizations.
GSA On-line Resource Center and Green Schools Community
GSA on-line is a gateway for administrators, educators, staff, students and parents to meet their Climate Commitment Pledge as well as personal sustainability goals across diverse topic areas. An interactive on-line green schools community, it celebrates the accomplishments of the growing list of GSA schools and connects school communities with the support they need to reduce carbon and implement sustainable solutions. GSA does not reinvent the wheel and highlights existing programs. The Resource Center continually evaluates and adds resources from organizations, agencies, research laboratories, and industry that will increasingly be able to be accessed nationally or by state.
Technical Workshops and Resource Fairs
GSA workshops and Resource Fairs bring together leading energy and sustainability education experts with national, state and local, public and private partners to introduce sustainable, Energy-Smart solutions that meet school needs. GSA workshops help schools understand how high performance buildings, energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, and utilizing schools as a teaching too can help mitigate climate change. “Resource Fairs” in selected schools nation-wide to bring the schools together to raise awareness, explore solutions and celebrate Green School best practices. Click here for workshop details.
